Raleigh Temple Trip

You know you’re a missionary when: You start writing on an envelope addressed to your little brother, and instead of writing Joseph Fields, you write “Joseph Smith”. . .

Hello Friends!

     Well, another week has gone by in Greenville, North Carolina.  Sometimes we have way too many adventures. . .  The highlight of my entire mission, though: We went to the temple! It was the most incredible experience of my life.  I never ever wanted to leave after we went in.  It was just beautiful seeing all the missionaries dressed in white. . .  I really could have stayed forever. 

     Oh, but guess what, everyone.  My companion is leaving me!  She is going home next week!  It’s crazy!  So, after this week I have no idea where I will be.  There are so many possibilities.  I could stay here and probably be English another transfer, or I could get transferred and be English or Spanish, or I could quite possibly stay here and be Spanish. . .  It’s in the Lord’s hands!  I’m just walking on faith for now.  It is pretty weird to think that Sis. Hansen will be with her parents next week. . .  I’ll sure miss her! 

     Let’s see, what else happened? . . .  Well, I decided to study patience in my personal studies and boy did I get trials of patience. . .  It was good, though.  I learned a lot this week. :)  I found a really great quote on patience that I like a lot.  It’s by President Uchtdorf:  “Patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something … even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!”  That is the best patience-missionary-quote I have ever heard, and it’s not even about missionary work!

     Currently we are lacking a little in the investigator side of things. . .  However, through patience, things are starting to look up! I’m excited to see what awaits us next week!

Love you all! Have a blessed week!                                

Hermana Fields

PS – Guess what I did this week.  I taught an English class!  The Spanish Elders have an English class going, and so we are starting to switch off teaching.  So, that was fun.  My Spanish is awful, but my English is pretty okay, so I thinked it worked! :)

Cool Animal sculptures in Greenville made out of like old metal stuff

Cool brick sculptures in Greenville

(Week 16)

You know you are in the South when the McDonalds sign says, “God bless Greenville” on it.  I love this place. . .

Well, Hello Everyone!

     How are y’all? We had another adventurous week in Greenville, as always. :) Monday started us off in a rather intimidating manner.  We had a dinner with our very tall, very intimidating Stake President.  That was pretty scary.  I really don’t think it should have been as scary as it was, but it was.  I have probably talked about it before, but I’m not sure. . .   Anyway, if I haven’t, we are trying to meet with every active member household and invite them to pray every day for thirty days for a missionary opportunity. And so, we had to give that lesson to the Stake President and his family.  I was terrified, but it went alright. :) It was all okay though, because after that we had a lesson with C.  She always makes our day.  She’s the cutest little woman I have ever met. :)
     We had exchanges this week so, of course, miracles happened.  The way we do exchanges in this area is a little different.  Both Sister Training Leaders come to our area and we just split up with them.  And, we go proselyting in our area, as opposed to one half of our companionship going to their area and one half of theirs coming here.  When I first got here Sister Hansen told me lots of times that miracles happen on exchanges, and she was right. Miracles happen on exchanges!  One example: There is a sister in our ward that hasn’t been active in a very long time.  In fact, she is Baptist now. Sister Hansen and I have gone over to her house lots of times to talk to her.  The poor woman has been going through a lot lately.  When we go to talk to her, she always talks to us for a couple of minutes and then tells us to go home and get out of the cold.  Well, Sister Boatwright and I went over during exchanges and she told us to come in out of the cold!  We had a good discussion with her. :)  Really, the fact that we got in is such a miracle!
     Another thing that happened: Sisters Beifuss and Hansen were out in the Farmville/Fountain area. There is a family out there that we have never been able to find.  Well, anyway, our dear GPS Darcy can’t, and we would get so lost.  Anyway, we have had the assignment to talk to them for forever, but no one could tell us how to get there.  While Sisters Beifuss and Hansen were out there a member showed them how to get there!  That doesn’t sound like a miracle, but it really is.
     We had a wonderful Ward Chili Cook-off/Talent Show this week.  That was hilarious.  The closing act was an older Brother in the Ward lip syncing and playing air guitar to “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash in a ring of rope lights.  There are some crazy talented kids in this ward, though.  One, Spencer (who is the Ward Mission Leader’s son), got up and said that he was going to play “All of Me” by Jon Schmidt.  Sister Hansen turned to me and said, “I can’t even play that song! I’ve tried!”  It was amazing.  He is only, like, 11 years old, too!  They are a very talented family.
     It’s just so great all the people you meet on a mission.  We met a very happy lady the other day who told us that you’ve got to give God some PDA every once in a while.  That’s a little different.  We also met a very nice Hawaiian lady, who gave us a picture of Jesus from Hawaii and some food, as soon as she walked in (she came to a lesson that we were giving her friend).  These people out here are just great. :)

Well, I love you all. Have a blessed week!

Hermana Fields

Baptism! (Week 15)

YOU KNOW YOU’RE A MISSIONARY WHEN: someone tells you that they think that they are an archangel and that doesn’t even faze you anymore.

Hello Friends!

        The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gained an incredible member last week! L. was finally baptized!!! It took a lot of work, but she made it!  She picked the hymn, “The Happy Day at Last Has Come.” We thought that was very appropriate. That amazing woman has had to deal with some crazy opposition! She has so much faith though, and she always makes it through. Even just the day before she was baptized she had so much stuff come up! Friday morning we got a text that said she was in the emergency room! We couldn’t even believe it: after everything, and all the times we had already pushed back her date.  Through lots of faith and prayers, everything worked out and she made it out alive and on-time for her baptism!  I have heard that the week heading up to baptisms are crazy, but now I know that that is 100% true!  L. made it through! She really is just so amazing. Her testimony is so strong!  After the baptism we were talking to her and she said that the only regret that she has is that she didn’t find the gospel earlier when she was raising her kids.  I can’t wait for her to go to the temple!  She already got her recommend on Sunday, and she is going to go on the ward temple trip at the end of the month.  I just wish I could go with her! I know that she will get so much out of just doing baptisms for the dead.

Other than that, this week was pretty normal.  Well, except that almost all of our appointments cancelled.  That’s alright, we talked to lots of people!  President Baker has set a new key indicator called Inviting Others.  So, basically any commitment that we make to non-members outside of lessons. He wants us to get 100 “IOs” a week. Well, me and Sis. Hansen struggle with this one…  I won’t even say how far off we are…  However, because of our appointments being cancelled and the weather being so nice, we got to talk to lots of people this week!  Still not even closer to 100, but we’re getting there!  When you are a missionary literally every single day is a new adventure.  You never know how your day is going to go.  We plan every night and set goals and sometimes I have no idea why…  However, setting daily goals is a really great thing.  Sometimes Sis. Hansen will say, “I think we should set a goal for 3 referrals.”  And, I say, “Okay, but I don’t see where in our day we are going to get those.”  And then we act in faith and things come up and we reach the crazy random goal that didn’t seem possible at the time.  Inspiration/revelation is so great! :)

Inspirational quote of the week:  “We are not commanded to be successful in all things, only faithful.” –Mother Theresa

Love you all!  Have a blessed week!
Hermana Fields

PS – If any of you are ever in Priesthood Executive Meeting - Never let it slip that you don’t like bacon.  Suddenly no one likes you, and the whole ward knows by the end of church…

Editor's note: This week's blog was delayed because it was sent snail mail. Also, never tell men that you don't like bacon!

Here are all the Hermanas in the mission at the sisters training meeting 

L's baptism!  Bro. Holladay (ward mission leader), L., Sis. Hansen & Me

(14 weeks out)

You know you're in the South when there is such a thing as a "Faith Cab."  That is a legit thing!!!

Hello!

     Guess what happened last week? We got snowed in again! That was the second Tuesday in a row that we couldn't do anything! We definitely got a lot of cleaning and record updating and phone calls done though that's for sure! 

     Best thing that has happened all week? Our investigator L is getting baptized!!!!! We are so excited! She is a cute Jamaican lady and she was beyond prepared for the gospel and she already has such a strong testimony! We have had to push back her date so many times because of all kinds of crazy things happening, but she finally made it!!! She is getting baptized on Saturday and so I will send pictures next week!

     Also, there is a lady in our ward that we have been working with, Sister J, she hasn't been very active in quite some time, but recently she started coming back to church, and then on Sunday this week she got up in sacrament meeting and bore her testimony! It is so amazing to watch how the Lord works in people's lives! I love it! 

     Another thing that is super great that happened: President Baker announced that we are going to be able to go to the temple! I don't know what kind of strings he pulled, but we are having zone conferences in Raleigh, and for part of it we get to go do a session in the Raleigh temple! I'm pretty darn excited, that's for sure! 

I hope you all have a blessed week!

Hermana Fields

Editor's note: It really is an incredible thing for the missionaries to be able to go to the Raleigh temple. It is not only not in their mission boundaries, it is also out of the Church's Area boundaries. Awesome!

Snow day....Which was really an Ice day!

You know you're a missionary when you plan and plan and plan, but you have no idea why because your day never ends up going even close to how you planned it would go...

Hello everyone!

Guess what?! I have glasses now! In other news, we had a snow day last week. We couldn't drive at all on Tuesday until about 6 because there was literally a quarter inch of solid ice covering EVERYTHING. So we did lot's of phone calls, drank hot chocolate and organized our area book. And, I ran around the apartment singing songs from Frozen. Finally, when we could leave it took us half an hour to dig out Maximus from all the ice. It was pretty amusing. All we had were butter knives. On some places on that poor car there was more like an inch of ice, and at the bottom of the windshield there was a good solid 2 and a half inches.The song from the beginning of Frozen was going through my head the entire time! Unfortunately, Sister Hansen has never seen Frozen because it came out after she left for her mission! So, she had no idea what I was talking about all day long.... It was all quite an adventure!

We got 4 new investigators this week! That was super great, lot's of crazy miracles! I'm trying to think if anything else exciting happened this week... Not really. Transfers happened and we're still both here in Greenville. I didn't think I would get moved, but you never know! Also, I'm half way through training! Woot woot! That's about all I have to say this week... Have a blessed week!

Hermana Fields

Glass trees

I got glasses!

See all that? That's not a light layer of snow, that's actually 1/4 inch of solid ice covering every surface of Greenville.

Mission Miracles - Week 12

Hello!!!

What a crazy week we had here! Well, on Tuesday we had a big specialized sisters training in Virginia. So, we got to go up to Virginia Beach on Monday, and then go out teaching with the sisters there. That was really cool. It's great to see how the work is in different areas of the mission. Then, on Tuesday, we all drove to Portsmouth for the meetings. They were AMAZING. I loved it! And I got to see all the Hermanas from the CCM!!! That was one of the absolute best parts of the entire training. I miss them so much! But it's alright, because I'll probably end up companions with one of them at some point in my mission. There are really not many Hermanas out here, like 14 maybe. Anyway, we had a lot of fun and learned A LOT:)

We have seen so many little miracles this week. We have been very busy because we had to push all our appointments from Monday and Tuesday back to the rest of the week. But it's good, because a busy missionary is a happy missionary! Really tired, but happy. And, even when we are so tired, and have completely messed up our scheduling and doubled booked an hour, if we keep pushing through and continue to work hard, Heavenly Father blesses us. That actually happened this week. We accidentally double booked an hour and so I was freaking out because I didn't want to cancel either appointment. Sister Hansen somehow kept a cool head through the entire thing. She just has more faith than me, haha. So we called and texted around the ward to see if anyone could go on splits with us. Only one person replied, our trusty ward missionary Sister Cartin. Then, Sister Hansen looks at me and says, " We should call Sister Andrews." And so we did, and guess what? She cancelled our appointment! So we took Sister Cartin with us to the other appointment that we had scheduled. The other appointment was with a potential investigator. So we went over to the house and the lady that we were going to teach wasn't there. But, her husband was, and he asked if we could teach him. So we did! It was a really unorganized, scrambled restoration lesson. But, the Spirit really stepped in and testified. He is really interested, and we are meeting with their family later this week. The best thing is that he had actually already picked up his wife's Book of Mormon, that we had given her, and had started reading it. He had it at work one day, and it turns out that his boss is LDS and talked to him a little bit about the Book of Mormon! I'm excited. Anyway, the real miracle here was that we had Sister Cartin with us. If that whole crazy, double-booking, madness had never happened we wouldn't have had her with us and we wouldn't have been able to teach that man, because mission rules say that we have to have another female with us if we are teaching a man by himself. The Lord really works in amazing ways. I love it! So, even though we were so silly and double-booked, Heavenly Father used that so that so we could teach someone! If any of you are thinking about a mission and aren't sure yet, I highly recommend it:)

Let's see, what else happened this week? Valentine's Day happened, and so we heart attacked and brought chocolate to some of the sisters in the ward. That day was a bit of a struggle because no one wanted to meet with us all that day because they had plans! Dear Sister Quasbarth had us over for dinner though:) 

Anyway, I hope y'all have a lovely week! 

Love y'all! 

Hermana Fields

You know you're a missionary when your desk starts out looking like this...

And ends up like this, an hour later!

Week 10 - Exchanges

Hello Everyone!

Well, to say the least, this was a busy/weird week. I went on my first exchanges this week! I was so scared at first, but it really gave me so much confidence. The sister training leader I was with is from Highland and it was so nice to talk to a Utahn again. It's weird how you don't even realize there is that much of a difference, until you talk to a Utahn again and you realize how much you missed it. While we were out on exchanges we could not meet with anyone all day! Everyone that we had an appointment with canceled, and then no one else was home. And then, we finally taught an investigator! She has been meeting with the missionaries for a while now, but couldn't settle on a date for baptism and we hadn't been able to get the real reason out of her. We finally did! Inspired questions are real things, people. We addressed her problem and she is now praying about Feb. 28th and I'm so excited for her! Anyway, so after a long day of nothing &  running around, we finally saw a miracle. :) Nothing else really super exciting happened last week though... Except, I am apparently going blind! My eyesight is doing some weird stuff, so I am going to get that checked soon so I can actually study... Also, I started seeing/hearing a bunch of doves again... I think I'm mental, but I'm pretty sure that Sister Hansen sees them, too. Oh well, Hermana Earl just told me that whenever I see or hear a dove it is a reminder that God loves me. 

So, for "you know you're a missionary when..." this week: You know you're a missionary when the pronoun I/me no longer exists to you. It has to be us/we. This week we had dinner with the Evans and I asked Brother Evans where he went on his mission and he told me and I said, "Oh yeah, you told me that." I felt so weird saying me instead of us.... 

Have a great week everyone! Love y'all! 

Hermana Fields

I love the South!

Country store

Old, abandoned houses. (Soni will appreciate these.)

Sunset